How the Actor reportedly cleared close to a million dollars betting on college games for Las Vegas gambling legend Billy Walters.

Actor Ashton Kutcher at Hawkeye Game next to team mascot

Actor Ashton Kutcher claimed to have been the "front of the largest national sports-betting syndicate in America" in an Esquire Magazine article earlier this year.

Billy Walters, considered to be the most successful professional sport bettor ever and head of the largest syndicate in the nation, had no comment, when reached by phone.But here is the big surprise. Kutcher's story actually checks out in Vegas.

The 35-year-old actor told Esquire he spent half of a college football season placing bets for a syndicate. Kutcher came off as knowledgeable about sports betting in the interview, describing how the syndicate pinpointed statistical anomalies and took advantage of point-spread movement. "We were clearing, like, $750,000 in four weeks of college football. It was pretty fun. Then they caught on," Kutcher said in the Esquire article. "The hypothesis had been that the house would just assume that I was a dumb actor with a lot of money who liked football." A former Las Vegas sports book manager told The Linemakers on Sporting News that he was very familiar with Kutcher's sports betting in the early 2000s, the same time frame chronicled by author Michael Konik in "The Smart Money: How the World's Best Sports Bettors Beat the Bookies out of Millions." "They thought they had a sucker on the hook, then he won $800,000 in four weeks," said the ex-bookie, who asked to remain anonymous. "They had to shut him down." Many believe Kutcher is one of the characters in Konik's highly-acclaimed book that details the author's time working for Rick "Big Daddy" Matthews, a gambler described as, "the world's smartest sports bettor and the mastermind behind the Brain Trust, a shadowy group of gamblers known for their expertise in beating the Vegas line." It's widely believed, but never publicly acknowledged, that "Big Daddy" Matthews is Walters, a reclusive Las Vegas businessman with a reported net worth in the hundreds of millions. "My book 'The Smart Money' is a non-fiction memoir that includes an explanatory note about honoring privacy," Konik wrote in an email to The Linemakers. "I have no further comment." Celebrities like Bruce Willis, Floyd Mayweather, Phil Mickelson and poker pro Phil Ivey have all been rumored to have been a part of Walters' syndicate at one time or another. Willis is also rumored to be one of the characters in "Smart Money," as is current Linemakers' analyst Richie Baccellieri. Baccellieri was a sports book manager at Caesars Palace in the mid-to late 1990s and is rumored to be the character "Stevie The Pencil" in "Smart Money." Baccellieri would not comment on his or Kutcher's inclusion in the book. The idea behind having a celebrity make the wagers is that their high-profile status and large bankroll tend to give them special treatment in a casino compared to a regular Joe or someone labeled as a professional bettor. Kutcher's days in Vegas seem to be curtailed. Norm Clarke, celebrity columnist for the Las Vegas Review-Journal, told The Linemakers on Sporting News that he had not heard of any regular sightings of Kutcher in at least the last "four-to-five years." "That's somebody that I would hear about," Clarke said. "I would be surprised if he was coming over that often and we weren't hearing something. I just don't think of him as much of a regular."By: David Purdum

In a 60 Minutes interview, Billy Walters told the beautiful Lara Logan that Wall Street was the worst bet he ever made. The Las Vegas Hustler says that Sports Betting doesn't deserve its' bad reputation and that Wall Street is much worse. Learn how to win and profit like Billy Walters.

Billy Walters Practices Bankroll Management Walters uses the data from his systems to come up with his own lines and then bets on the differences. He varies his bet amount by how much different his own line is from the sportsbook’s line. He mentions that he had won a record amount on the Saints/Colts Superbowl: $3.5M. Clearly he took advantage of substantial differences in his own projections vs. the oddsmakers and the higher betting limits that a Superb Bowl allows.

Billy Walters Is Very Astute About Line Moves For anyone paying attention, this was the real revelation about the program. Walters was speaking to one of his beards on the phone (guys who place bets for him) and he was very strict saying that if a casino would allow him a half point, he would play, and if not he would hold off. Line moves are the #1 way for a bettor to beat the house, without question. To do some math, remember that as the bettor, you are risking money in the proportion of $110 to win $100 when you bet. Therefore you need to win approximately 52.4% of the time to win money. Line moves give you an opportunity to blow these odds out of the water. Even if your system was flipping a coin, picking up an extra point in the NFL would give you an extra 4.6-6.0 percent chance of winning – meaning just by being astute about shopping for lines, you have increased your chances from 50% to around 55% on each game which over the course of a season will lead to huge returns. In the NBA, a point is even more pronounced, giving the gambler an extra 5.8-6.6% advantage. Realizing how the numbers are stacked in a line shopper’s favor, it is no wonder that Billy Walters was so emphatic and disciplined about a half point…Our take away While Billy Walters didn’t give away the farm regarding his betting philosophy, it was nice to see such a big fish in our little corner of the world, sports betting, get some mainstream airtime. While Walters let on that he was serious about system betting, and we believe him, he offered little into what criteria he considers when looking for an advantage. The most telling part was what he said to his beard about line shopping: he was very serious about gaining an advantage from line moves. The numbers bear him out:Line Moves are the number one way to profit in Sport Betting. Take that to the bank!